When you travel, it is important to be able to check a bus timetable or to find an hotel. Now, with your smartphone, you can plan a trip from A to Z. You can book a flight, check the weather, book a train ticket, check the latest travel money rate, read reviews of restaurants or even pay in the country’s currency without extra charge.
When we went to Holbox Island, we tried to book a room directly at the hotel reception. I asked for the best room rate. They called the manager and the rate was more expensive than the one I saw the day before on Booking.com. I told them with Booking.com I could get a better rate and they replied that yes, they knew but they couldn’t control this. So, I asked for the Wi-Fi password and I booked the room with my phone with the Booking.com app.
Apps can be very helpful, but I use them very moderately. After all, you are on holiday and don’t forget that. Holidays are the time to relax and take time. As we always say, the locals are your best “apps”. They live here and use the bus on a daily basis. Imagine yourself in the London Underground at rush hour. You are lost, and you don’t know where to go. You can look at the Tube app, but it is more efficient to ask your directions from a passing commuter.
Below you can find the best tourist apps we use when we travel. I’m not going to give you a list of apps but just the ones I found useful when travelling.
Best Tourist Apps – Flight
Finding the right flight isn’t always easy. I’m going to give you few tips to find cheap flights. The first tip is to avoid a Saturday departure. The best day of the week is Tuesday. Secondly, the more you search, the more the price goes up. Even if all the companies tell us this isn’t true. From my own experience, I noticed this each time. So, to avoid this, do your research in one place and book at another place. Make sure you are not logged in to Google when you are doing your research.
Kayak
Kayak is a lot more than an app for flights. I use it to find best flight deals. This app searches across all travel platforms and because of this, you get the best price for your flight. It has another nice feature: the app analyses the market and can tell you if it is a good time to buy your ticket or whether it is better to wait. You can set up a price alert as well. With Kayak you can create alerts, when the price moves up or down and you will receive a notification.
Another nice feature is the flight tracker. You can know the latest information about a flight. This is very useful if you need to pick someone up from the airport or if you are travelling with others on different flights.
You can download it now here:
Skyscanner
Skyscanner has almost the same principal as Kayak. The app searches with partners’ websites to give you the best rate for your flight price. It has the price alert as well and Skyscanner allows you to explore. This means that, if you are close to one airport and you don’t know where you want to go, you can use it to find the best deal from this airport.
From my experience Skyscanner is better to find you a flight at the best price.
You can download it now here:
Best Tourist Apps – Hotel
Booking.com
You can use Kayak and Skyscanner to book hotels as well, but those apps are better for flights. For hotels, you need to stick to the number one: Booking.com
Why is this app good?
It is anywhere, anytime. You can use Booking.com on your PC or Mac at home and book hotels. If you switch to your smartphone or your tablet, you have exactly all your information and you will find all your reservation details with address and map. This is very convenient when you travel.
One tip for you: When you are travelling from place to place to follow your itinerary (how to create a perfect itinerary here), I take a screen shot of the map where the hotel is and another one of the address. Like that, even if I can’t speak the language, I can show the map and the address to the bus driver or taxi. You may not have an internet connection on your way.
The other good thing with this app is that after few bookings you will be a Genius user and this is offers some great perks. You will get 10% off some hotels or you might get a freebee (for example you get free bicycle rentals at some hotels).
If you are in the town and you don’t know where to sleep, you can use the Booking.com app to find a deal nearby. This option is going to show you all the rooms available near you.
You can download it now here:
Airbnb
If you don’t want to book an hotel but prefer to stay in a flat or house, you can use Airbnb. The good thing with this is that you will probably find a better deal than an hotel. This is also a good solution if you want to get more immersion in a country because you will sleep in someone’s house.
You can download it now here:
Best Tourist Apps – Route Planner
Citymapper
I love this app and I use it often in London. This app is going to find the best route to your destination. This app works inside the city and for now it just covers 39 cities. It is very easy to use. Just tell it where you want to go, and it will find you the best route giving very clear instructions to achieve your journey. It provides you with a map and times for the next bus or train, along with instructions about where to find the next stop
You can download it now here:
ADO
For those who are travelling to Mexico, there is a great app for buses. You can download ADO buses app. This app will give you all the price and route information with timetables.
You can download it now here:
WAZE
If you are travelling by car, I really recommended you use the WAZE app. It is a free GPS app with traffic information provided by the driving community. This app shows you in real time the road traffic. On top of being a very good GPS, you also have the support of all the driving community. As soon as something happens on the roads, people update WAZE’s information in real time.
You can download it now here:
Best Tourist Apps – Money
XE currency converter
Regardless of where you are going for your vacation, this app has all the world’s currencies. It is easy to use. You just need to choose a currency, add the price and the app will convert it for you. You can also view a chart to find out if it is the best time for you to buy your money.
You can download it now here:
Revolut
This is the new way to use money abroad. You can register with them and you will receive a card. Afterwards, you need to put money on the card and it is ready to use. You can use it as a normal payment card and you will not have to pay foreign exchange fees up to £5000. You can withdraw money from ATMs without fees up to £200 a month. It is very easy to use by transferring money to the card with your phone, then use it straight away.
Check out this video
You can download it now here:
Best Tourist Apps – Activities
TripAdvisor
If you want to find a good place to eat or do an activity, this app offers the best way to find out if a restaurant is for you or whether an activity is any good.
TripAdvisor is number one for customer reviews. It has a near me option where you can find out about places or things to do. You also have access to the TripAdvisor forum, where you can ask any question about what you want to do.
You can download it now here:
Yelp
Another similar app is Yelp. This app is very good for restaurants and nightlife. It also provides you with opening times and phone numbers. You can use advance filters to reduce the list of businesses. It will also provide you with pictures.
You can download it now here:
I hope these apps will help you to make your life easier. I’m interested to know which apps you will use during your travel.
